Buckwheat hulling and separating machine



(No Model.) I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 W. A, COWLEY. BUGKWHEAT HULLING AND SEPARATING MACHINE.

No.259,6"70. I Patented. June 20, 1882.

min e mra/ Q r Inventor Mlouuflclnu X 'MMW N PETERS. WWW-Lithograph. Washington. D. C.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.) W. YA. COWLEY.

BUGKWHEAT HULLINGI AND SEPARATING MACHINE. No.Z59. ,670. PatentedJune 20, 1882.

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UNITE STATES -ll lY l lv T OFFICE.

WILLIAM A. COWLEY, OF STAMFORD, NEW YORK.

BUCKWHEAT HU'LLlNG AN D SEPARATING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 259,670, dated June Q0, 1882. Application filed August 25, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. COWLEY, of the village of Stamford, in the county of Delaware and State of New York, have in- "ented a new and useful Improvementin Buckwheat Hulling and Separating Machines,

which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which the samev letters indicate the same parts, though in different'views of the same machine.

This inventionirelates to that class of machines having for its object the removal of the hulls of buckwheat preparatory to the grinding of the nutritious part of the kernel into flour.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the machine with some of the parts broken away and the outer casings of others entirely removed, in order to more clearly show the various details. Fig. 2 is an end View of the machine, designed more partioularly to show the construction of the compartmented draft-chest E and its connection with the exhaust fan-blower e and the vibratory screen 0. Fig. '3 is a view of the opposite end of the machine. Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of the conical huller A and huller-case a. Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the auxiliary huller D and concave stripping-block h. Fig. 6 is an interior side view of that part of the screen 0 lying back of the draft-chest E in Fig.1. Fig. 7 is a top view or plan of the screen (3' on the line l, Figs. 1 and 6. Fig.8 represents the face-casing E of the draft-chest E, with a portion of the face-v casing B of the elevator B attached. Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 are drawn on a somewhat larger scale than Figs. 1,2, 3, and 8.

In my invention, A represents the primary huller in the form of a frustum of a cone, the upper part of the surface being smooth and plain, and the lower part being cut or cast into serrated corrugations, as shown in Figs. 1, 3, and 4:. The interior concave surface-of the conical huller-case a is corrugated in like manner. The lines of corrugation in the huller are inclinedslightly forward in the direction of its motion, thereby insuring contact with the grain in its passage between the two surfaces. The huller is adjusted more or less near to the case, as required, bymeansof two thumb-nuts, so, screwed onto the two lighter rods c, which rods pass downward through a flange in the case a, and throughthe bridge-treeu, to which their lower ends are attached. Scrcwing or unscrewing thesenuts will raise or lower the bridge-tree, carrying with it the vertical shaft y, upon the head of which the huller is secured.

D is'an auxiliary huller, placed across the frame F of the machine and underneath the primary huller A. This huller is corrugated longitudinally, and of form similar to the corrugations described for the primary huller.

The stripping-block h is adjusted by the setscrews 00 to any distance required from the huller D, and is dressed or cast roughly on its concave face.

The two hullers, together with the case a and stripping-block h, may be of stone or iron, as preferred.

0 is a screen containing three sieves of different degrees of fineness, and extending between the sides of the frame-work F nearly the whole length of the machine.-

The further construction of the machine may be best described and understood by tracing and followingits operation.

The buckwheat should, in order to make the best quality of flour, be first subjected to some one of the ordinary processes of securing, for the purpose of removing the scale, dust, and other impuritiesfrom the surface of the grain. It is then, by means of elevators, conveyors, or otherwise, deposited in the hopper b of this machine. Falling thence into the shoe k, it is shaken by means of the rod 20, actuated by the vibratory screen G, into the funnel ot' the huller-case a, where, by means of the plain surface of the horizontally-revolving conical huller A, it is evenly distributed to the corrugations on the lower part of the same cone. In passing between the revolving corrugations of the cone A and the stationary corrugations of its case a, set at a proper distance apart, most of the hulls will become loosened, and if the grain is dry a large proportion of them will become detached from the kernel. The

grain, then directed by the chute 31-, falls between the revolving auxiliary huller D and the concave stripping-block h, where the hullin g is completed. The last-named huller need seldom be used except in the case of green or damp buckwheat, in which case it is found to be very effective in removing hulls which have been partially loosened by action of the primary huller. The hulled grain and hulls then fall upon the perforated sieve I, of medium fineness, in the screen 0. This screen is supported upon standing springs and is slightly and rapidly shaken or vibrated in the direction of its length by means of the connecting-rod 10, attached to the crank or eccentric f on the shaftj The detached hulls, beinglight and fiat, then pass freely downward over the sieve l, and also over the short and coarser sieve p and over the low diagonal dam r, and are discharged at the tail of the screen.

Mostof the meats will he more orless broken into difierent degrees of fineness in passing through the hullers, and the greater portion of these will pass through the sieve l and be discharged through the spout m into compartment 0 of the draft-chest E. Here a current of air produced by the exhaust-fan e, entering the compartment by the aperture 0, meets the falling fragments and separates and lifts the lighter particles of hulls, bran, and dust from among them, carrying this refuse matter upward and through the air-passage c into thefan e, whence it is blown into the mass of hulls. The heavier fiour particles meantime continue falling until they are discharged through the spout s, and are thence conveyed by any means to the ordinary stones to be ground into flour.

p is a short fine sieve, through which the finer fragments or any flour of the siftings through the sieve lbefore mentioned may pass and be taken out through the spout m into compartment 0, in order that it may be subjected to a lighter draft in the same manner and from the same fan as just described. The flour of this grade is discharged through the spout s, and thence taken directly to the bolt or to the flouring-stones, whichever may be desired.

In order that nothing of value for flour may be permitted to go into the refuse screenings, the hulls, after leaving the sieve Z, are passed over a short coarse sieve, p and also over a low bar, 1', placed diagonally across the screen. Whole meats, freed from the hulls, will pass through this coarser sieve and be discharged through the spout m into compartment 0 of the draft-chest. Unhulled buckwheat or broken kernels with a part of the hulls still adhering, (as is often the case with damp grain,) being heavier than the hulls, will settle underneath them, and directed by the diagonal bar T will slowly move to the lower side corner of the coarse sieve and be discharged through the spout m and also as from spout m into the samecompartment, c of the draft-chest. Here they are subjected to a draft of air in the same manner as before described, and sufficiently strong to remove anyloose hulls that may have entered with them.

2 is a gate in the spout m and is designed to prevent empty floating hulls from entering the draft-chest at that place with the unhulled buckwheat. By slightly raising the gate the heavier grain, directed by the bar 1, as before described, will pass underneath itandinto the spout m while the lighter hulls will be shaken over the bar 1' and out at the tail of the screen. In the case of very dry buckwheat the hulls before reaching this point will all become detached and freed from their meats, and this gate may then be closed entirely.

t is a switch-valve in the lower part of compartment c, by which the matter of that compartment, after being subjected to the draft of air before mentioned, may, when the valve is inclined at an angle of from forty to fifty degrees, as shown in Fig. 1, be directed and carried by gravity through the partition to which the lower end of the valve is hinged and underneath the spout s of eompartmentc. From this valve the grain is projected into the buckets of the elevator 13, to be thence conveyed to the hopper b to be rehulled and screened and separated, as before; or the valve '6 may be turned up vertically into the partition between compartments c and 0, thus closing the aperture therein, and allow the grain to fall directly downward and be discharged through the spout s and thence to the flouring-stones or elsewhere, as the operator may desire.

It will be seen by reference to Figs. 1, .2,

and 8 that compartments 0 and c of the draftchest E terminate at their lower ends in the spouts s and s, which spouts are above the elevator B and are not connected with it.

The lower end of the elevatorB, beingplaced under the spouts s and 8, reaches compartmentc of the draft-chest, and is placed in working relation to it only when the switch-valve t is inclined diagonally across that compartment, as shown in Figs. 1 and 8.

a, n, and n are slides over the air-passages and between compartments 0, c, and 0, re spectively, and the fan-blower c, to regulate the intensity of the air-drafts in the several compartments.

0, 0, and o are slides covering or uncoverin g the inlet air-apertures e and e of the compartments c, c, and 0 By raising or lowering either one of these slides the air-aperture at one end of that slide is made more or less open, and the one at the opposite end is at the same time and in the same degree made more or less closed, thus admitting the air in greater or less quantities, as may be desired, either above or below the several inlets of sittings.

Motion to the different parts of the machine is communicated and transmitted as follows: by a driving-belt to main pulley d on the shaft 3 thence to counter-shaftf byaquartertwist belt from pulley f to pulley f to exhaust fanblower by belt from pulley 11 to 1); t0 auxiliary huller by belt from pulley g to D, and to elevator by belt from pulley i to a pulley (not shown in the drawings) on the upper shaft of the elevator.

IIO

' "r, and gate-z, in combination with the compartmented draft-chest E, as specified and described.

3. The compartmented draft-chest E, provided with air-passages e 0 0 slides n 'n n l o 0 o, spouts s s s, and switch-valve t, in combination with the vibratory screen 0, exhaust fan-blower e, and elevator B of a buckwheat hulling and separating machine, all substantially as and for the uses and purposes set forth and described.

4. In a buckwheat boiling and separating machine, the primary and auxiliary hullers A D, in combination with a screen, 0, draft-chest E, fan-blower e, and elevator B, arranged substantially as described, and for the purposes mentioned. 7

WM. A. COWLEY. Witnesses:

S. B. CHAMPION, A. J. CHAMPION. 

